An upper caste family listens as Video Volunteer videojournalist Niru J. Rathod, 24, does spot interviews with their family members in their home on topics of caste discrimination and water quality issues in a remote village in Surendranagar, Gujarat, India on 14 December 2012. The last time Niru had come to their home, she was discriminated against and served tea in a saucer meant for lower castes. Now, after seeing the effects of her video activism, the family no longer discriminates against her. Niru, the 8th child in a family of 11 girls born to a Dalit construction worker, has been using videography for social change since 2006. She shoots and produces her own short documentaries and is a committed video activist, having conducted hundreds of village video screenings where she also speaks to thousands of men, shattering their ideas about what a woman and a Dalit can do while bringing massive changes to the communities she documents. Photo by Suzanne Lee / Marie Claire France
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